Use of the Internet and various Intranets continues to grow, especially the use of web-based networks. The web-based networks utilize Hyper-Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP) and the Hyper-Text Markup Language (HTML). In particular, the World Wide Web is a system of Internet servers that support specially formatted documents that are formatted in a language called HTML. Applications called browsers are used to access the World Wide Web. Documents or other resources on the World Wide Web are called web pages. Each web page is identified by a unique Uniform Resource Locator (URL), which is a global address of the document or other resource.
HTTP is a stateless protocol that web clients and web servers use to communicate between themselves using hyperlinks. The terminology “stateless” means that the protocol does not have information about what occurred previously, i.e., does not retain the configuration settings used previously. Thus, each web page is processed without any knowledge of the previous pages requested. HTTP defines how messages are formatted and transmitted and what actions web servers and browsers are to take in response to various commands. HTML is the language used by the web servers for creating and connecting together documents that contain the hyperlinks. HTML defines the structure and layout of a web document by using predefined tags and attributes. An HTML document begins with <html><head>, after which the written text is entered, and then concludes with </body></html>. An HTML file is a text file containing small markup tags. An HTML file must have an htm or html file extension, and may be created using a simple text editor.
The following example shows one embodiment of a typical HTML document framework:                <html>        <head>        </head>        <title> Title of page </title>        <body>        Text information        </body>        <html>In this example, the first markup tag, sometimes referred to simply as a “tag,” is <html>. The tags are not case-sensitive. At the present time, generally uppercase tags are used, but the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has recommended that lowercase tags be used. In addition, the next generation of HTML (XHTML) demands lowercase tags. Hence, lowercase tags are used herein. The <html>tag indicates to the browser that an HTML document is being started. The last tag in the document is </html>, which indicates to the browser that this is the end of the HTML document. A header tag, <head>, may follow the <html> tag. Text placed between the <head> tag and a </head> tag is header information, i.e., information about the document which is not displayed in the browser window. Next, a title may be inserted between a title tag, <title>, and an end-of title tag, </title>, and the text between the two title tags will be displayed in the browser window. Text information is inserted between the tags <body> and </body>.        
Using HTTP and HTML allows users to send text and graphical information that has hyperlinks. Hyperlinks are network addresses that are embedded in a word, a phrase, an icon, a graphical image or the like that are activated when the user selects the hyperlink. The hyperlinks contain HTML-coded references that point to another place in the same document or to a web page for a different document, which the browser then jumps to. Hyperlinks may also be called anchors. Typically, the user clicks on the hyperlink to follow the link. Hyperlinks are essential to all hypertext systems, including the World Wide Web.
The Internet and the Intranets provide access to large amounts of information, allowing the user to download web pages and print them readily. However, such implementations may be more communication intensive than is desired since, even though a user may desire to print only part of a web page or one document of a group of documents at one web site, typically the entire document or the entire group of documents may be printed. Thus, there is a need for a method and system that allows the user the flexibility of selecting and printing the desired portion of a web page.